more-inThough the State Budget is steeped in the Left tradition of laying stress on social welfare, education, and health, it has not addressed issues confronting fishermen or the fisheries sector, according to the Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedi. Marine fisheries production has steeply fallen over the last four years from 8.3 lakh tonnes during 2012-13 to 5.20 lakh tonnes during 2016-17. The traditional fishermen have been hit the hardest. Oil sardines, their main catch, has dwindled to 25,000 tonnes from the earlier level of nearly four lakh tonnes. At the same time, the traditional sector has been straddled by increasing cost of operations as well as dwindling resources, he said.

Source: The Hindu February 02, 2018 20:19 UTC